Photoshop Trick and couple of drawings

Not much new art today. Every now and then life gets in the way of art and that has been what has been happening to me this past week. So above is a small, and I do mean small pen and ink drawing that I added colored pencil to. Not a lot of color, just some blue and yellow. Done on white Stonehenge, size of the center is approx 4 inches square. No opinions on my part for this one, it was just something I did to give me something to do while my mind was distracted by life.

Above is a drawing from my sketchbook of a Great Blue Heron. I believe this will be the center of the border piece I was working on this spring.

Thank heavens for Photoshop. Since I have scans of both the heron drawing and the finished border I can combine the two  in one file (different layers) and using a layer mask on the scan of the borders show off the drawing in the center of the border as it will be in real life. This allows me to play with the size of the drawing as it shows in the center. See the two images below:

Not sure which size of the Heron I prefer, I think the one on the right. Note that I didn't spend a lot of time cleaning the edges with the brush tool, so you can see some areas of paper from the scan of the border which is on top of the drawing scan. 

For those with Adobe Photoshop who want to know what I did, I opened the file, made a copy of the image so the image is on a layer that can be modified. Then I added a Layer Mask to that layer, I used the reveals all option, then switching the color swatches so that black is on top and active I selected the brush tool and proceeded to wipe out the center of the scan. The drawing scan was then copied over into the border file, placed so that it was underneath the border. Then I played with the size of the drawing image until I liked what I saw.  I hold down the shift key while dragging corners, that way the drawing doesn't get distorted. If I had taken more time with the brush tool I could have had totally smooth edges around the border. In this case I don't really care so didn't bother.  

This is a very quick and useful way of combining and modifying photographs.

One last image today:

I spent some time walking to various locations this past week, and when the day is sunny I always haul the camera long. Above is a photograph of some blooming peonies in a neighbors yard. I love the sight and smell of blooming Peonies, we had them in our yard when I was a kid. Don't love the ants that also love them for their sweet sap, but the flowers are beautiful. I think this pink and white combination is esp. lovely.

That is it for today. Per usual comments are always welcome.

A Field Journal - Sketchbook

Daniel Webster First Visit May 30th

I want to apologize up front for the poor quality of my scans today. The book I am scanning has gotten wet, and to be honest I am not sure my home scanner is the best option for scanning book pages in the first place.

I have been carrying this book around with me on most of my walks for several weeks if not all summer, but yesterday was the first time I actually opened it to make some notes and a couple of sketches. It was a fairly nice day yesterday sunny, warm, though very muggy so I decided to head over to the Daniel Webster Sanctuary for my weekly visit. Monday is my usual day for visiting but it was pouring rain so I didn't go.

While I was sitting in one of the hides around the pond, I was noting changes from the last time I was visiting and though I need to document this. I happen to have the blank book with me (I have been meaning to do this all summer) so I opened it up and started.

I am not a plein air artist, the bugs get to me, and I don't want to haul paints, brushes and water around, I have too many colored pencils to make it practical to bring them so I will be using just plain black ink. A waterproof Micron is my preferred tool. I will try to do some field sketches but I always bring the camera and will sometimes supplement those images with sketches from my photos.

The top page is a combination of a sketch I made yesterday and others I made at home last night from photographs made on that first visit. I wrote in the journal what I can recall seeing as prodded by reviewing the photographs.

Green Heron

The page above is to mark the visit when I saw the Green Heron. I didn't do much else that day other than sit in the hide watching and making photographs. The sketch is from one of my photos.

Rabbit

The visit documented above was notable for seeing some yellow warblers, at least I think that is what I saw. I tried making a photograph but the birds were feeding on berries in the bushes so not really visible and my camera lens isn't powerful enough to make a good photo under those conditions. I noted that the pond water level was getting very low and watched the dragonflies. On my way out of the sanctuary I saw this rabbit eating grass at the edge of the car park. I made quite a few photos and used one to do the sketch above.

Above are the pages that I actually wrote in the field yesterday. The top drawings on the left of the turtles and dragonfly were done on site. The bottom sketch of the geese feeding in the field was done last night from a photograph I made.

Now that I have actually gotten started doing this, I will try to keep it up. The Daniel Webster is the perfect place to use because with the two hides I have a spot to sit out of the sun, observe nature, and write or draw.

Above is a photo I made yesterday at Daniel Webster. They mow the fields to keep the trees from growing back and turning the fields to forest. Most of what grows in the fields are grasses of various types, you can see them turning golden in the above photo.

One last photo for today. To date, this summer, my best photo of a Monarch Butterfly, made at the North River Sanctuary yesterday afternoon.

That is it for today, if you enjoyed the views into my Nature Journal check out Sketching in Nature, a blog by various artists around the world and their drawings of nature. Per usual comments are always welcome.

Three H's, Hosta, Hearts, Heron

I finally finished the above drawing. Poor thing was put aside for a couple of weeks while I adjusted to the summer heat and nerved myself up enough to go in and work on the details. Not terribly large, the drawing area is approx. 4 x 5.5 inches, but when you are doing it all one dot at a time it takes a while to do even a small piece. I am rather pleased with how this came out. The drawing is based on a photograph I made earlier this spring/summer of a Hosta starting to put out its flower stalk. I believe I posted that photo on the blog.

I rather enjoyed doing this piece but have a feeling that it will take me a bit before I want to attempt another stipple drawing. They do take forever to do.

Below is the colored hearts and shells drawing that I posted last week:

I used mainly Derwent Inktense pencils for the color. When water activated these pencils display a brilliant color, brighter then most watercolor pencils so they are really fun to work with even if the resulting colors can be a bit tricky to prejudge.  This wasn't a preplanned drawing, just something I did for fun as a break from the Hosta.

Below is my figure drawing from last night.

Due to several factors we only had one 45 minute session last nigh instead of our usual 2 1/2 hours so the above drawing is really more of a sketch. It is mostly done with a 2H lead, though just before the break I had switched to the 2B lead  which can be seen in the sketched in background.

This drawing at least lets you see how I go about doing my weekly figure drawings. I start with a 2H lead (lighter marks, easier to erase) to rough in the figure/face and any furniture. Erasing and redrawing until I have the figure blocked in the way I want it. This usually takes me through the first posing session. After the break I will go back in with a 2B lead to refine and darken the face/body putting in shadows and shading during the 2nd session. In the last session I add details to the hands/face and work on the background details. Though usually I have the figure pretty much finished by the end of the 2nd posing session and spend the last session filling in the cloth shadows and background.

My last image is a photo I made yesterday at one of the MA Audubon Sanctuaries:

The bird pictured above is a Green Heron, and I photographed it at the Daniel Webster Sanctuary in Marshfield, MA. yesterday afternoon. Yesterday was the first time I had seen this bird other than in a photograph. They are MA's 2nd native Heron species, the other being the Great Blue Heron. These guys are quite a bit smaller then the Great Blue's, but still larger then most of your backyard birds.

I was thrilled to have see it, and probably spent over 20 minutes watching it wander around the shore of the pond and feeding. I think it was catching tadpoles, but even though I was fairly close (in one of the Sanctuary's hides) I couldn't really see what it was eating, other than it look black and wriggled a bit.

Well that is my three H's for today, I think I much prefer my three to the weatherman's three. Per usual comments are always welcome.